Burnham-On-Sea Community Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to this friendly school.

Mutual respect is a strong feature of the positive relationships between pupils and adults. Adults create a safe, nurturing environment that builds trust and confidence in pupils. Pupils show a deep understanding of the need to acknowledge and respect individual differences.

Pupils often have positive attitudes towards their learning. However, the curriculum is not yet ambitious enough, especially in reading. This hinders pupils' success and motivation in their learning.

Pupils behave well in lessons and moving around the school. The school environment is calm and orderly because of clear routines and expectations.... Pupils, parents and staff are adamant that bullying does not happen at the school.

Pupils know that staff will help if there are upsets and fallouts.

There are lots of opportunities for pupils to develop their interests and talents. Pupils really enjoy the wide range of clubs they can choose from.

They are proud of the leadership roles they have, such as eco-warriors and councillors. They see these as opportunities to make a positive contribution to the life of the school.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Many pupils do not learn to read as well as they could.

This is because the delivery of the early reading curriculum is not ambitious enough. Teaching does not ensure that the sounds pupils learn build on what they already know. Misconceptions are not picked up quickly enough, so some pupils continue to make the same mistakes.

Staff do not all have the subject knowledge they need to be able to support well those pupils who fall behind. This means that too many pupils do not meet the expected standard in their reading, including in the early years.

New leaders have prioritised work to redesign the wider curriculum.

In many subjects, leaders have identified and sequenced the knowledge they want pupils to learn. They have also considered ways to enrich subjects through experiences that build pupils' wider development. Pupils benefit from taking part in events such as the RSPB national birdwatch and the local poppy parade.

The new curriculum has been in place since September 2022, and this is beginning to have a positive impact on the quality of pupils' learning. For example, in art, pupils gradually build their knowledge and skills to be able to produce high-quality end pieces. The mathematics curriculum is well sequenced.

Leaders make sure that children in Reception secure their understanding of foundational concepts. This enables them to enter Year 1 confidently able to use numbers in problem solving. Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), use a range of physical resources independently to support their understanding.

Assessment is not used well enough to ensure that pupils, including some with SEND, learn well. Although teachers accurately identify pupils who are falling behind, curriculum planning does not address gaps in learning well enough to ensure they know more and remember more. For example, pupils in the early years who struggle with pencil grip or letter formation do not receive support that improves these quickly enough.

Subject leadership is at an early stage of development. While subject leadership has considered the design of the curriculum, it does not support staff subject knowledge effectively enough, especially in reading. This means that the impact of teaching across the curriculum is too variable.

As a result, pupils do not know more and remember more over time.

Governors are committed to the school and are proud of the way the school contributes to the local community. However, they do not have a secure enough understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum delivered to pupils.

They are not rigorous enough in assuring themselves of the quality of education provided. As a result, the necessary improvements to the curriculum have not been tackled urgently enough.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders have a good understanding of the risks to pupils in the locality. They know their pupils and families well. Work with outside agencies is effective, which means that pupils and families get the support they need.

Staff know the signs of abuse and use the agreed systems for recording and reporting concerns. This means that leaders are able to act swiftly. Record keeping is organised, but there is room for improvement in ensuring these are checked effectively and actions complete.

Pupils learn about risk and how to keep themselves safe, including when using the internet.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The reading curriculum is weak. Many pupils, including children in Reception, do not learn to read as well as they could and have gaps in their phonics knowledge.

Teaching does not ensure that the curriculum matches these pupils' needs. Leaders must ensure that an ambitious phonics curriculum is implemented effectively so that all pupils learn to read fluently and accurately. The capacity of subject leadership to improve the curriculum is not fully developed.

Accurate evaluation of the impact of the curriculum is not consistently used to support teaching effectively enough. Leaders need to develop subject leadership capacity to support teaching to have more impact on pupils' ability to know more, remember more and do more over time. ? Governors do not have a secure enough understanding of the curriculum delivered to pupils.

The ways that they assure themselves of the quality of education are not rigorous enough to ensure they have an accurate view. This means they cannot provide the right levels of challenge and support for school leaders. Governors need to ensure they develop their understanding of the impact of the school's curriculum on pupils' learning.

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